Friday, January 29, 2016

January is almost over already which is a scary thought, but this month the skies of L.A. were graced with a wealth of new TV show billboards all hoping to capture an audience in the increasingly competitive worlds of network, cable and streaming television. Here's a collection of the cool TV billboards which caught my magpie eye at the start of 2016.

TV billboards

One of my favourite new visuals filling the skies this month has been for HBO's new gritty 70s music drama, Vinyl, with one of my guilty pleasures, Bobby Cannavale (I've had a crush on him ever since he was Will's cop boyfriend in the sitcom Will & Grace).

Talking about favourites and the movie musical Grease has always been a favourite of mine, and millions of others too. That's why when Fox 'borrowed' the idea from NBC of doing a live musical TV event they chose this popular movie to attract the highest audience possible and cast popular young things like Vanessa Hudgens and Julianne Hough.

This season fantasy shows seem to be all the rage and personally I'm enjoyed MTV's The Shannara Chronicles, which feels like a youthful Lord of the Rings, but has that added post-apocalyptic feel to it too (it's far superior to Freeform's Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments).

The Walking Dead's Sarah Wayne Callies and Lost's Josh Holloway add familiar star power to USA Network's post-alien invasion drama, Colony, and the resistance thriller connects even more because it's set in L.A.
This season comic book characters continue to enjoy life on the small screen, with 'Lucifer' from DC Comics Vertigo imprint getting a new procedural series with Tom Ellis in the hot seat as the devil himself living in the City of Angels.

Lucifer isn't the only comic book-themed new show for the New Year either, as Arrow and The Flash get their own spin-off TV series populated with their secondary hero and villain characters in DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

In addition the the Lord of Hell, Fox is also dabbling in science fiction with a new take on the Frankenstein story, with Rob Kazinsky getting a Second Chance at life in his new series.

And over on Syfy, they're dabbling in mysticism with The Magicians, based on the 2009 Lev Grossman novel of the same name, which follows the students at a college of magic in New York City.

The gritty off-the-grid drama about a clan living outside of modern day society protecting their land from coal developers in Appalachia made its debut this month and also filled the skies with cool billboards for Outsiders.

In addition to all the new dramas, there was also more than a fair share of new comedies vying for your attention in the skies of L.A. this month, like new sitcom Superstore starring America Fererra.

Plus NBC also had the end-of-the-world comedy, You, Me and the Apocalypse, and Rob Lowe seems to be busier than ever, especially with his new Fox comedy The Grinder too.

Desperate Housewives Eva Longoria was back on the small screen this month with her new Telenovela sitcom, following the drama behind-the-scenes at a popular Latin American soap.
Meanwhile the Idiot Sitter went from web series to Comedy Central series this month, with a straight-and-narrow young woman hired to babysit a mega-rich brat (no doubt suffering from affluenza) placed under house arrest in her millionaire father's mansion.

Fox was bringing the laughs, at least in the skies of L.A. this month with this tongue-in-cheek light-switch ad creative for Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life sitcom.

And Zach Galifianakis was trying to master the serious art of being a classic Parisian clown in FX's Baskets.

Spoof cop show Angie Tribeca kicked off its debut with a 25-hour binge-watching marathon on TBS, taking a leaf out of the streaming services to try and hook audiences on the new Rashida Jones comedy.

And speaking of crime, but this time of the real-life variety, Netflix's docu-series Making a Murderer was causing widespread debate about the innocence of Steven Avery.

And from one killer conviction to someone that got away with murder and The People v. O. J. Simpson was retelling the infamous tale of the football legend-turned-actor's trial for the murder of his ex-wife.

On Showtime a new documentary series was exploring the darkest reaches of the internet and the people who populate it with Dark Net.

Meanwhile former Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee was being super-sized along the Sunset Strip for her new late-night satirical show, Full Frontal.

It's also awards season here in Hollywood and Ricky Gervais returned to host the Golden Globes for the fourth time, although it may be his last, as he was even more offensive than funny this year.

That obviously didn't stop TV networks and cable channels trying to win support for their shows, like Starz for its Outlander, Blunt Talk and Flesh and Bone freshman series.
Plus Netflix also showed their support for their ladies prison dramedy, Orange is the New Black, now in its third season.
And the Globes weren't the only party in town this month, as the Critics' Choice Awards merged their TV and film awards ceremonies into one big event for the first time, hosts by T. J. Miller, who was far kinder to his audience than Ricky Gervais.

What new shows are you watching this January? Here's also a selection of the new TV show billboards filling the skies last January 2015.

Stay tuned in the days to come for another roundup of all the returning TV series gracing L.A.'s skyline this past month too...